Water Wings
by wyvern713
Summary: Ellerinn has had a hard life. When a strange man confronts her on a beach trip, events are set in motion that will change her life forever. Mixing characters from the movie series and X-Men: Evolution, plus my own characters. X-men is owned by Marvel, I only own the characters I have created.
1. Chapter 1

AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

My foot slipped and now I'm falling. Falling off a cliff to the water below. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem; I do play water polo after all. However, this cliff is at least 50-60 feet high, and I was shoved off the cliff, rather roughly. All I hear is my own screaming and my friend, Jared, screaming my name as I plummet to the water below.

"Ellerinn!"

The last thing I see before hitting the water is the man who pushed me falling off the cliff towards the rocks below and Jared's face appearing over the edge of the cliff. Unable to orient myself into a proper dive, I hit the water flat on my back. Before I could do anything else I hit my head on a rock and pass out. My last fleeting thought is of Jared and the irony of a water polo player drowning.

**Jared's POV**

I rushed at the man, yelling in fury. How dare he push Ellerinn off the cliff? Without thinking though, I do the same thing, pushing him off to the side to the rocks below.

"Ellerinn!" I call after her, watching horrified as she struggled to get herself into a position to prevent a back- or belly-flop. Being pushed off backwards took her by surprise though and she is unable to position herself. I cringe in horror as she slams into the water flat on her back. I sighed briefly, knowing that she landed in the water and would soon resurface. After about 20 seconds though, she still hadn't come up. I rushed down the cliff as quickly as I could, trying to get to her. Just as I reached the bottom of the cliff and started running towards the beach, I finally saw her head poke up above the water. I breathed a sigh of relief and called out to her. She turned her head towards me, a horrified look on her face. I paused for a second, confused, and watched dumbfounded as she ducked under the water and swam away! I started to go and swim after her when I saw a bright flash near where Ellerinn disappeared.

_What is going on here?_

**Ellerinn**

I wake up soon after hitting my head. I'm surprised I do because I've been inhaling water.

_What is this? Why am I not drowning?_

My legs start to itch and crawl. I look down at my legs and to my surprise and horror, I see them fusing together and becoming an iridescent, scaly tail. I jerk backwards in shock and confirm that yes, I can and am breathing underwater, and then I end up finding my head above water anyways. I look around dazed—then I hear my name. I turn and see Jared coming down the beach, waving at me and calling my name, relief on his face. I panicked, not knowing what he would think of my strange transformation. Instead of going towards him, like I so desperately wanted to do, I ducked back underwater and swam away, terrified of what he would think, and terrified of myself.

_No, no, no! This can't be happening to me! I am alive, that is true, but why did I have to become this? _I think as I swim out of the small bay and towards the ocean, but still staying semi-near the beach. _What am I? What the hell is going on? What would Jared think? People don't just turn into mermaids or whatever when they fall into the water. This never happened to me before, why now? Why here? Am I stuck like this? How can I change back? Will I be able to change back? _

I stop my swimming, my back and arms suddenly in a lot of pain. After a few seconds of what feels like my skin tearing apart, the pain recedes. I look back to find a dorsal fin running down the entire length of my back, connecting with the one that was already on my tail, tearing my shirt with its appearance. I look at my arms. From what I can tell, it looks like there are fins coming off the far edge of them (if that makes any sense), but they're much larger, almost wing-like. I stare at them for a few seconds before I realize that the remnants of my clothing that were still holding on during my transformation have fallen off in tatters. I look down and find that scales are covering almost my entire torso now.

I continue swimming parallel to the coastline once I'm satisfied that nothing else will be growing off me for a while. I don't know where I'm going; I just feel a type of pull, urging me to swim in that direction. I poke my head above the water and look around. I see a dock about 50 yards in front of me. I start to swim towards it when I spot something out of the corner of my eye. I turn to get a better look at it and freeze in alarm—shark. I look a few seconds longer and see two, no, three more dorsal fins following the first one. It's then that I realize that my head is bleeding a bit from hitting the rock. I swim towards the dock in a panic, briefly forgetting that I didn't have legs anymore and that I wasn't going to be able to get up onto it with my tail.

_Swim Ellerinn!_

I hear the voice in my head, but it's not my voice. However I don't have time to think about it before one of the sharks makes a leap towards me, teeth ready to take a chunk out of me. I dive beneath him and start swimming away from the dock. I remember something I read at school and start swimming in a zigzag style, trying to lose the sharks on my tail (no pun intended). One of them slams into me from the side, sending me into a spin. I'm running totally on adrenaline and instinct now, so I don't immediately notice when I try to fend off one of the sharks with my hand and what I guess would be a shockwave emits from it, sending the shark "flying." I have almost no time to analyze what happened before the other three sharks rush towards me. Acting almost purely on instinct, I send those three flying in the same manner as the first. Apparently they decide that I'm more trouble than I'm worth because I don't see them after that.

By this point, I am several hundred yards out, way beyond the edge of the surf. I start to swim back to shore to see if I could identify the voice that I heard in my head, when something catches my eye under the water.

_Are you coming back? _The mystery voice asks me. _Not yet, _I think back, _I thought I saw something buried in the rocks below me. I'm going to go check it out._

_Ok._

I shake my head, bewildered at what just transpired, but then I see what looks like a chunk of metal sticking out from between two big rocks. It's covered in seaweed, but it looks like it might have some letters on it. I slowly swim down towards it. I clear away the seaweed and find out that the chunk not only has some letters, but the full name of a ship.

"The Morning Seabird" the letters read.

_Impossible! _I looked at the name again, to make sure I had read it correctly. No doubt about it—I had found the remains of the ship that went missing 6 years ago. No one had ever found the ship. Until now.

I look around and can I see why no one had found it though. The ship was completely buried by huge boulders, most of them so huge it would take a lot of machine effort to move them. I look around a bit more and find a smaller rock off to the side with blood on it. I swim closer, and after seeing the body of a shark nearby, I realize why I was the one who found it. The first shockwave I launched at the first shark sent it crashing into this smaller rock, killing it, but also shifting the rock enough to reveal a large enough piece of ship for me to notice it.

_What did you find?_

_If you can talk to me like this, surely you can see what I'm seeing?_

_I could, but I'm keeping my distance and only connecting enough to communicate because I can sense that you don't want people in your head._

_Got that right._

_So, what did you find?_

_You're not going to believe this, but I found _The Morning Seabird_._

There was a pause. _Huh. _I can hear the astonishment in his thoughts.

I swim around inside the ship, having pulled away a chunk of the hull big enough I could get through. I swim past the kitchen when something inside causes me to freeze and do a double-take. I stare inside, unable to believe what I'm seeing.

_You there, sir?_

_Yes._

_There's someone still alive down here._


	2. Chapter 2: The Rescue

_There's someone still alive down here!_

I hear the shock in the mysterious voice's thoughts. _Are you sure? I don't sense anyone else down there._

_Yes. I can see him walking around through the window in this door. The room appears to be the kitchen. Considering that there seems to be no water leaking into the room, it looks to be watertight too._

I watch the man pace around the room, talking to himself—no, a cat. I shake my head in disbelief. Yes, he's talking to a cat.

_He's got a cat here too. I still can't believe what I'm seeing._

All of a sudden, he stops his pacing and looks towards he door, suddenly aware that I was there, watching him. I can tell he's just as shocked as I am. He walks closer to the door. I can see that he's speaking, but I guess the door is really thick or something because I cannot hear a word he's saying. The fact that I'm a couple hundred yards underwater probably has something to do with it too. I gesture to him, trying to communicate the fact that I cannot hear him.

Then he signs a sentence. Stunned but grateful for a means of communication, I signed back to him, asking for him to sign it again. I see relief on his face when I sign back—he's just as grateful for a means of communication as I am.

Who are you and how are you not drowning?

My name is Ellerinn. As far as how I'm not drowning, it might be better if I just show you. I swim backwards to let him see my tail. I even do a loop-de-loop for him. I don't know why. I swim back to the window after my little performance and notice the wonder on his face. I half expect him to back away, scared of me. To my surprise however, only part of my expectations happened. He did back away, but soon I realized that it was to show off.

I'm Tyler. Watch this, he signs. I watch as he grabs a chunk of bread off the counter. I stare in amazement as it grows to a full loaf in his hand. Then he did the same thing with a bottle of water, turning 1 inch of water into a nearly full bottle. I can feel my mental conversationalist "knocking" so I let him in more. Not sure how I did, but somehow, I did.

_I figured out how he survived so long trapped down here, sir. His name is Tyler. _I can feel him in my mind, watching what I'm watching.

_Amazing. We need to get him out of there. I think you both would benefit greatly from being students at my school. _I watch Tyler look around in shock. Apparently he heard the voice in his head too.

_What kind of school are you talking about, Mr—?_

_Xavier. Charles Xavier. My school is for people with special abilities, like you. My goal in this school is to take them in and help them get an education they may not otherwise, and also to help them adapt to and learn to control their gifts. But first we have to get Tyler out of there._

_How are we going to do that?_

_I have some friends who can help with that. Oh by the way, there's a young man who just showed up on the dock. He's worried about you. He says he watched you get pushed off a cliff and when you came up, he said you looked scared and swam away._

I sighed . . . well, as best as one could underwater. _That would be Jared. He's a friend of mine. So these friends of yours, _I thought, quickly changing the subject, _how can they help? _I can see Tyler inside, a pensive look on his face. Mr. Xavier must be relaying this conversation to him too.

_I'm going to send four out to your location. One of them, Jean, is a telepath, like me, and she will find your location based on what I tell her. Being also a telekinetic, she will help you move rocks and any pieces of ship out of the way. My friend Storm will create a type of whirlpool down to your location, clearing an airway connecting the door to the surface. My friend Bobby will freeze it to keep the path open, and my friend Warren will then fly down and get Tyler out of there. They're on their way now._

Did you get all of that? I ask Tyler after banging on the window to get his attention. He looks back at me. He's been crying.

Yes, he answers slowly, I did. I can't believe that after all this time, I'm finally getting out. I thought for sure that I was going to die down here. Thank you, Ellerinnn, thank you so much. I smile at him in response.

_Alright, Ellerinn was it? _The voice is a female one this time. Must be Jean.

_Yes. You here already?_

I hear her laugh in my head._ Yes, flying sure has its speed advantages. I'm right above you, ready to move the rocks when you are._

_Alright, hold on. _ I'll be right back, I sign to Tyler. He just nods. I swim up to the rocks above. _Here goes nothing_, I think to myself. I concentrate on the shockwaves I'm trying to conjure up, not sure exactly how to do so—all the previous times I launched one were by instinct. I kinda figure it out, and send one up as powerful as I can muster. The rocks absorb a lot of it, but I hear a small exclamation in my head.

_I take it you're ready? _I can almost hear a smile in her voice.

_Yes, I am._

_Ok, I'm going to have Storm start the whirlpool now so I can see the rocks better._

I begin to feel the water swirl around me. I sink back down towards the door a bit, not wanting to get smacked into another rock or a part of the ship. Suddenly, I start to see the rocks rumble and shift. I take that as my cue and send a few more shockwaves up, trying to dislodge the rocks. As soon as we get them out of the way, I plummet to the now exposed ship's deck as the whirlpool suddenly reaches all the way down. I scramble back into the wall of water, trying not to get swirled around with it. All of a sudden, the water stops swirling. I look around and see a tube of ice leading up to the surface. And guess what, I'm stuck in the wall. Luckily though, the tunnel is just where it needs to be. I look over at the door. It's safe for you to come out now. There's actual air out here now.

I watch as Tyler acknowledges me, grabs a bag from inside, then cautiously opens the door with one hand, holding his cat in the other. As he steps outside he takes a huge breath of fresh air and I can just tell by the look on his face that he is simply ecstatic. I hear a flurry of wings and I look up to see Xavier's fourth friend flying down on massive white angel wings.

"Bobby!" he yells up, slightly annoyed. "You got our new friend stuck in the ice." He looks over at me apologetically. "Sorry about that. I guess he got a little carried away."

"It's ok," I say, "I can get out. But you'll want to be up there" I point up "when I do."

Warren simply nods, and then, with Tyler and cat in his arms, he takes off and starts flying towards the shore. I dislodge myself from the ice with some mini shockwaves and end up floating towards the surface as the water rushes back to its place, released by my escape. I look around to see Bobby and Jean heading back with Warren, but Storm has stayed behind.

"You alright?" she asks me.

"Oh yes, I'm fine, just a bit cold that's all. Ice tends to do that." She laughs and we start to head back to the shore, she in the air, and me in the water.

I duck back beneath the water, finding it easier to swim that way than trying to get a good rhythm swimming at the surface of the water, like I would have had I had legs. I end up racing Storm back to the dock, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it. In the process of rescuing Tyler, something inside me changed, and I began to realize that my changes weren't all that bad. But at the same time, what about school and water polo? I wasn't going to be able to go back to any of that anymore. I'm not even sure about Xavier's school. The whole concept sounded good, but what was I going to do? Live in the school pool the rest of my life? Not an attractive option—and that was even if they had a pool.

We arrive at the dock and Tyler is sprawled out in the sand. It takes me a second, but I quickly realize what he was doing—reveling in the fact that after 6 years, he is finally back on solid ground. I laugh lightly and turned back to the dock where I'm finally able to see the face that had been talking with me in my head. Charles Xavier was not quite what I expected. Based on his voice in my head, I was envisioning someone a lot more rugged, but he was actually the opposite, bald, refined, wearing a suit and sitting in a wheelchair.

"It's nice to meet you in person, Ellerinn," he says to me.

"You also, sir." We shake hands and my nervousness is calmed as a result. I look a bit past him and see Jared. I sink back into the water, once again nervous and afraid. Jared slowly walks to the end of the dock. He is just as nervous as I am, if not more. As he gets closer and is able to see me better, his nervousness is replaced by something I've never seen before in his face—fear. Fear and horror.

"What happened to you, Ellerinn?"


	3. Chapter 3: Don't Leave Me

"What happened to you Ellerinn?"

I hear the shock and distress in Jared's voice—fear even. I slink further into the water, ashamed, and starting to really realize what's happened to me. I look down at myself, the fin running down my back, the wing-like fins coming off my arms (which at this point, I realize that they are really wings, not just fins), and the long stretch of iridescent scales that covers almost my entire body. The adrenaline that was running through me is dissipating—all of a sudden, I am afraid of myself, of what I have become. I look back up at him.

"I—I—I don't know," I stammer quietly. "I honestly don't know." At this point, I'm starting to panic a little bit. _Why me? What happened to me? Why did this happen? How did it happen? How can I make it stop?_ So many questions and thoughts are running through my head, I can't keep track of them all. I look away from Jared, back at the surface of the water. _This can't be happening. This is all just a bad dream. I'm going to wake up in my alley shelter any second now._

_Calm your mind, Ellerinn;_ I hear Mr. Xavier's calming voice in my head. It has a warm, soothing tone that helps me relax a little. _Calm your mind. This is why I'm here, to help you with all of this._

"You guys are all freaks!"

My head snaps back up and I see Jared tearing off the dock and away from the beach. Somehow, I leap up onto the dock in an attempt to chase after him.

"Jared! Please don't go!" I flounder, literally, on the dock forgetting once again that I don't have legs.

"JARED!"

But it's too late. Jared is long gone, past the sand and already halfway across the empty parking lot. I bang on the dock in frustration.

"Why did this happen to me?! I have had enough to deal with in my life! I don't need this! I don't want it! Why me? WHY?!"

I can't hold it in anymore. I start sobbing—no, bawling, and pounding my fist on the dock. Anger, rage, frustration, despair, fear, and ultimately, loneliness, course through me and my emotions. So much emotion erupts inside me, emotion that I had kept bottled up inside with the intention of never letting it out, never letting anyone else see it, never to be hurt again. It all comes rushing to the surface, and I don't even care anymore.

I really am a freak. My hopes of ever having a semi-normal life are dashed, like the waves upon the rocks below me. My only friend has deserted me when I need him most.

"Ell—" I hear Jean begin, but she is stopped by Mr. Xavier.

"Let her be for a while."

I lay there on the wet dock, bawling my eyes out probably for a good 5-10 minutes. It's not until I finally start to wind down that I realize that I've been covered in a blanket. _How long has that been there?_ I ask myself.

"Good call, Warren." Storm's voice slowly breaks through my dying sobs. I sit up on my elbow and look back at myself, wiping tears away from my eyes. I don't see anything different except that I'm covered in a huge fleece blanket. I sit up more and that's when I notice it. I can hardly believe my eyes!

"Well Ellerinn," I hear Mr. Xavier say, "It appears that your gift is triggered by contact with water. Fascinating."

I move the blanket around a little to get a better look, and sure enough! I'm shocked to once again see my own legs instead of a tail. I wiggle my toes. I have my own legs back! Then I realize why I've been covered in a blanket—my clothes are all gone. And I'm cold.

"Th-thanks," I say, shivering, "Thanks for the blanket." I pause for a bit, calming down, "Storm, I heard you say something to Warren a second ago. Something like 'Good call.' What did you mean by that?"

"When we were rescuing Tyler and you were stuck in the wall of ice, Warren noticed that some of your tail was sticking out. Just before he flew up with Tyler and the cat, he noticed that the same bit of tail had shrunk and pretty much shriveled up. Seeing that made him wonder what would happen if you were to dry off, if you would change back to your normal self."

"Like in that one movie, 'Splash'?"

"Yes, just like that."

"Hmm. Good to know." I look around "Hey, where is Tyler anyways? He was here a second ago."

"Jean and Bobby took him to the hospital," Mr. Xavier answers, "to make sure he didn't sustain any injuries or other damage during his stay at the bottom of the ocean. His cat is still here though, fascinated by Warren. I think it's because of the wings." He chuckles ever so slightly.

I look over and sure enough, there's the cat playing with the tips of one of Warren's wings. I guess he's a cat person because he seems to be having just as much fun teasing the cat as the cat is having playing with the feathers of his wings. Wow, I didn't notice until just now how big they are. They must keep him really warm at night.

I look towards the parking lot, to see if by some chance Jared had come back. No such luck. With a sigh, I turn back towards Mr. Xavier. "So, this school you've mentioned—what exactly is it? And where is it?"

"Its full name is Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It's a school where people with special gifts, like you, Tyler, and all of us here can live and learn in safety from those who would try to hurt us—human or otherwise. It's also a place where mutants—those of us with these special gifts—can learn more about their gifts, how to control them and how to improve them. My students get an education that is just as good as, if not better than, any other school in the country. Some of my first students, including Jean and Storm, are now instructors. As to the where, it's across the country in New York."

"New York? That's really far away. What brings you all out here to Oregon then?"

"I have a machine called Cerebro that amplifies my telepathy and helps me detect and locate mutants. I hope I don't sound like a stalker by saying this, but I've actually been keeping an eye on you for some time now, ever since this past November. Something happened to you at that time that interested me, but I didn't make contact because there was a little bit of a crisis at the school."

_November, what happened in November? _I rack my brain, trying to remember. The last several years have pretty much all melded together so it takes me a second to remember.

"Oh," I say quietly, remembering. It was an unusually cold night, accompanied by even more unusual snow. My area rarely gets much snow, let alone snow in November. I had a really bad nightmare that night about one of the foster homes I had been in. I woke up violently and realized my pillow, or rather what I used for a pillow, was on fire. I shoved it outside and it extinguished quickly because of the snow. I wondered how it had caught on fire, and more importantly, why I had not—especially when the coffee can I use to contain a small fire was nowhere near my pillow.

I didn't really think much about it though until a few weeks later. I had started a fire in my coffee can and I went to blow on it to get it going better. Imagine my surprise when not air, but fire came out of my mouth! It wasn't much, but enough to scare me. And enough to get the coffee can fire really going. For the next few weeks I got extremely paranoid that I would set fire to the next thing I blew too hard on. I was terrified. Some of the same "What's happening to me?" thoughts passed through my head then just as they are now.

I began to figure out how the fire thing worked and while I used it hardly at all, I did become less scared of myself. I told no one though, not even Jared. I couldn't stand to have one more person I cared about turning on me, calling me a freak, and leaving me alone.

And yet here we are. Almost a year later, and that very thing happened anyway. Jared found out I was different, and he freaked and ran.

"Do any of you have a cell phone I could borrow?" I ask quietly. I need to see Jared. I need to talk to him. I need to tell him that even though I'm different, I'm still me, we can still be friends. Surely he'll understand, right?

Warren walks over and hands me his.

"Thank you." I dial Jared's number as I stand up, wrapping the blanket closer around me. It's a little cold now that the wind's picked up.

No answer. I leave a message, trying not to cry.

"Hi Jared, it's me, Ellerinn. I—uh, I need to talk to you. Please don't leave me alone. You know more than anyone else that . . . just . . . please. Don't leave me alone. Don't abandon me. You're my only friend. Please. I really need to talk to you. Please meet me at Memorial Park. I'll be on the swings. Please Jared. Don't leave me."

I finish my message, walk back to the dock, and hand the phone back to Warren. "Are you going to be around for a while? Your school sounds interesting, but I need some time to process what happened today."

"Yes, we'll be around," Xavier answers, "we will have to fly back tomorrow night though. If you decide that you would like to come back with us, you can meet us at the airport by then."

"Alright, thank you." I answer. It's time for me to head "home". If I'm going to see Jared, I need to look decent. Lucky for me, I still have one good pair of jeans and a few extra shirts.

I made my way downtown and dart between the pet store and the gas station. As I turned the corner behind the car wash, I see my deaf neighbor, or as much of a neighbor as a homeless person can be, but he's focused on something, probably trying to "block alien mind probes" again. He's a little kooky in the head—he's convinced that aliens abducted him ten years ago and they keep trying to contact him, but he's still very nice. He shared some food with me one time when I really needed it. Not many people in our situation would do that.

Anyways, I change into some real clothes and head over to the park. I sit down on one of the swings and wait.

And wait. And wait.


End file.
